Buchholz wins fourth straight

BOSTON -- Clay Buchholz had his worst start of the season. He won a pitchers' duel anyway.

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By
Tim Britton
Posted Apr. 20, 2013 @ 6:40 pm

BOSTON -- Clay Buchholz had his worst start of the season. He won a pitchers' duel anyway.

Buchholz saw his ERA more than double in Boston's 4-3 win over the Royals, but that's mainly because a 0.41 ERA is unrealistic to carry much deeper into April. In winning for the fourth time in as many starts, Buchholz finished eight innings, allowing Kansas City two runs on eight hits.

"I feel good," Buchholz said. ""Everything's going really well right now, getting the defensive plays that are made behind you. Timely hitting is key and having the steadiness behind me makes any pitcher feel good."

Buchholz is the first Red Sox pitcher to win his first four starts since Josh Beckett in 2007. Beckett won his first seven that season.

Buchholz continued to showcase a terrific changeup on Saturday, throwing 12 of his 15 changes for strikes and inducing four swing-and-misses. He was in the zone with all of his pitches, in fact, tossing 70 strikes over 104 pitches.

It was also another efficient outing for Buchholz, who has lasted at least seven innings in all four starts.

Buchholz admitted after the game that it was difficult to rein in his emotions after the pregame ceremony on the field.

"At times [it was] tough to restrain yourself, getting into everything that was going on, for me personally," he said. "It was different in the bullpen because the ceremony was going, and I don't think it would be right for me to keep throwing through the ceremony. I had to stop a couple of times.... That was the part I just wanted to get through. I thought I did a decent job of doing that."